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    Penning of verses is another extremely popular tradition of Valentine's Day. Weeks before the festival tabloids and magazines publish sonnets and verses to commemorate St Valentine's Day. The custom owes its origin to the poets of Britain who have penned the majority of the best-loved romantic verses associated with Saint Valentine.

 

 

 

2.3 April Fool’s Day

 

 

     Holidays are celebrated for all sorts of reasons. Some honor heroes, others commemorate religious events, but April 1 stands out as the only holiday that celebrates foolishness. April Fools' Day, or All Fools Day, is an odd celebration with a strange history.

    There's some uncertainty about when and where this bizarre tradition began, but the most accepted explanation traces April Fools' Day back to 16th century France. Up until 1564, the accepted calendar was the Julian calendar, which observed the beginning of the New Year around April. According to "The Oxford Companion to the Year," King Charles IX then declared that France would begin using the Gregorian calendar, which shifted New Year's Day to January 1.

     Not everyone accepted this shifting of dates at the same time. Some believed that the dates should not be shifted, and it was these people who became the butt of some April jokes and were mocked as fools. People sent gifts and invited them to bogus parties. Citizens in the rural parts of France were also victims of these jokes. In those days, news traveled slowly and they might not have known about the shifting of dates for months or years. These people also endured being made fun of for celebrating the new year on the wrong day.

     It's probably no coincidence that April Fools' Day is celebrated at the same time that two other similar holidays are celebrated. In ancient Rome, the festival of Hilaria was thrown to celebrate the resurrection of the god Attis. Hilaria is probably the base word for hilarity and hilarious, which mean great merriment. Today, Hilaria is also known as Roman Laughing Day. In India, the Holi festival celebrates the arrival of spring. As a part of that festival, people play jokes and smear colors on each other.

     There's no clear connection between the modern observance of April Fools' Day and these two ancient celebrations, which lends most historians to accept the French explanation for how April Fools' Day developed.

    In England and Scotland April fooling became popular during the 1700s, however the origin of the custom still is unclear. There are several theories about it.

    One theory is that in Europe, until the sixteenth century, March 25th was New Year’s Day. Celebration lasted up to the 1st of April when people used to give presents to one another. In 1564, Charles IX, the French king, adopted the Gregorian calendar and made January 1st New Year’s Day. Those, who were against this, continued giving presents on April 1st. In the following years, those who insisted on celebrating the New Year at its old time were mocked as fools and people would play pranks and tricks on them and called them `Poisson d’avril ‘, meaning April Fish in French. This must have been so much fun that it spread all over the world and people played tricks on everyone, not just the people who didn’t accept the new calendar.

     Other people say that the holiday is just a continuation of a festival in honour of the Celtic god of Mirth but the most popular belief is that it’s a reaction to the change in season and the start of spring. Whatever its origin, making fools of people on this day remains one of the most flourishing of all British customs.

     British folklore links April Fool's Day to the town of Gotham, the legendary town of fools located in Nottinghamshire. According to the legend, it was traditional in the 13th century for any road that the King placed his foot upon to become public property. So when the citizens of Gotham heard that King John planned to travel through their town, they refused him entry, not wishing to lose their main road. When the King heard this, he sent soldiers to the town. But when the soldiers arrived in Gotham, they found the town full of lunatics engaged in foolish activities such as drowning fish or attempting to cage birds in roofless fences. Their foolery was all an act, but the King fell for the ruse and declared the town too foolish to warrant punishment. Ever since then, according to legend, April Fool's Day has commemorated their trickery.

     April Fools’ Day is celebrated in Great Britain and in the US like in France, Russia and many other countries on April 1 every year. Unlike other holidays April Fools’ Day is «for-fun-only». Nobody buys gifts or takes their beloved ones out to eat in a fancy restaurant. Nobody gets off work or school. It’s simply a fun little holiday, but a holiday on which one must remain forever vigilant, for he may be the next April Fool!

     April Fool jokes usually involve persuading someone to do something silly, like looking for hen’s teeth, or saying something , like «Your shoe’s untied, or I accidentally stepped on your glasses!» Setting a roommate’s alarm clock back an hour is a common prank.

     However, you can only play April Fools on people before midday – at midday the fun must stop or the trickster is told:

“April Fool’s Day is past and gone,

You’re the fool and I am none.”

or

“April Fool’s Day’s past and gone,

You’re the fool for making one.”

 

 

 

 

 

     2.4 May 1 – Day of Solidary

 

 

     The first day of the month of May is known as May Day. It is the time of year when warmer weather begins and flowers and trees start to blossom. It is said to be a time of love and romance. It is when people celebrate the coming of summer with lots of different customs that are expressions of joy and hope after a long winter.

     Although summer does not officially begin until June, May Day marks its beginning. May Day celebrations have been carried out in England for over 2000 years.

     The Romans celebrated the festival of Flora, goddess of fruit and flowers, which marked the beginning of summer. It was held annually from April 28th to May 3rd.

     The month of May has many traditions and celebrations. For the convenience of the general public, many May Day activities have now been moved to the new May Day holiday (from 1978) on the first Monday of the month. This Monday is a bank holiday, a day off school and work.

     Many of the May Day celebrations take place at the weekend as well as on the 'May Day' Monday. The weekend is known as bank holiday weekend because it comes with the extra day holiday on the Monday.

     May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. May Day is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with village fetes and community gatherings. Since the reform of the Catholic Calendar, May 1st is the Feast of St Joseph the Worker, the patron saint of workers. Seeding has been completed by this date and it was convenient to give farm labourers a day off. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the Maypole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons.

     The important feature of Mayday is the garland – a symbol of the coming summer. To do a garland one must pick a lot of beautiful spring flowers that bloom in the fields and valleys. On May Day one can see beautiful garlands of flowers and greenery carried by children. Those who carry the garland are called garland-carriers. The most skillful garlands makers can make a pyramid of hoops of different sizes. Each hoop in the pyramid is wreathed with flowers and greenery. May garlands may be also decorated with ribbons. Garlands-parties are usually accompanied by musicians and Morris dancers. The word Morris comes from the French Moresque or the Spanish Moriska. Morris dance, or Moorish dance, was brought to England from Spain and become a traditional English ceremonial dance for men. It is performed by a team of 6 dancers decked with ribbons and flowers. Morris is often danced round the Maypole, which is another important feature of May Day celebrations. The Maypole is an ancient fertility emblem. Originally it was a tree that was brought from the woods and set up on the village green. The tree was richly decorated with flowers and ribbons. But later people decided that it was easier to have a permanent Maypole of a wooden shaft. such Maypoles remained in position all the year round, but they were annually refreshed with new paints and decorated with keaves, flowers and ribbons before the holiday. Pernament poles were usually very tall. There are still in Britain now, and most schools have them. The May Queen is the central figure in May Day celebrations. She is crowned with a crown of flowers. Everybody is to obey her orders. Being elected the May Queen was the great honour for a girl. This becomes clear from Alfred Tennyson's famous poem The May Queen.

     As May 1st is not a public holiday in Great Britain, May Day celebrations are traditionally held on the Sunday following it, unless, of course, the 1st of May falls on a Sunday. On May Sunday workers march through the streets and hold meetings to voice their own demands and the demands of other progressive forces of the country. The issues involved may include demands for higher wages and better working conditions, protests against rising unemployment, demands for a change in the Government’s policy, etc.  The 1st of May has also to some extent retained its old significance — that of а pagan spring festival. In ancient times it used to be celebrated with garlands and flowers, dancing and games on the village green. А Maypole was erected — a tall pole wreathed with flowers, to which in later times ribbons were attached and held by the dancers. The girls put on their best summer frocks, plaited flowers in their hair and round their waists and eagerly awaited the crowning of the May Queen. The most beautiful girl was crowned with а garland of flowers. After this great event Веге was dancing, often Morris dancing, with the dancers dressed in fancy costume, usually representing characters in the Robin Hood legend. May-Day games and sports were followed by refreshments in the open.

     The May Day bank holiday, on the first Monday in May, was traditionally the only one to affect the state school calendar, although new arrangements in some areas to even out the length of school terms mean that the Good Friday and Easter Monday bank holidays, which vary from year to year, may also fall during term time. The May Day bank holiday was created in 1978. In February 2011, the UK Parliament was reported to be considering scrapping the bank holiday associated with May Day, replacing it with a bank holiday in October, possibly co-inciding with Trafalgar Day (celebrated on 21 October), to create a "United Kingdom Day".

 

 

 

 

 

2.5 Merry England and London May Queen Festival

 

 

     The May Queen is also known as The Maiden, the goddess of spring, flower bride, queen of the faeries, and the lady of the flowers. The May Queen is a symbol of the stillness of nature around which everything revolves. She stands for purity, strength and the potential for growth, as the plants grow in May. She is one of many personifications of the energy of the earth.

     She was once also known as Maid Marian in the medieval plays of Robin Hood and of the May Games - she is the young village girl, crowned with blossom, attended by children with garlands and white dresses. Some folklorists have drawn parallels between her and Maia, the Roman Goddess of Springtime, of Growth and Increase whose very name may be the root of "May".

     Visitors from many parts of the world are among the thousands of people who gather on the Common at Hayes, near Bromley, Kent, to witness the crowning of London's May Queen. It is the largest May Queen Festival in Britain and over a thousand children take part. The date is the second Saturday in May. The procession forms up in the village about 1.30 p.m. and makes its way to the common by way of the village church. The actual crowning takes place about 3 p.m. As many as forty May Queens from different parts of the country are present and with their attendants present a colourful spectacle. Their dresses are beautifully made, with a distinctive colour scheme for almost all the different "Realms".

     Today the May Queen is a girl who must ride or walk at the front of a parade for May Day celebrations. She wears a white gown to symbolize purity and usually a tiara or crown. Her duty is to begin the May Day celebrations. She is generally crowned by flowers and makes a speech before the dancing begins. Certain age groups dance round a Maypole celebrating youth and the spring time.

     According to popular British folklore, the tradition once had a sinister twist, in that the May Queen was put to death once the festivities were over. The veracity of this belief is difficult to establish, but while in truth it might just be an example of anti-pagan propaganda, frequent associations between May Day rituals, the occult and human sacrifice are still to be found in popular culture today. The Wicker Man, a cult horror film starring Christopher Lee, is a prominent example of these associations.

Many areas keep this tradition alive today. The oldest unbroken tradition is found in Hayfield, Derbyshire based on a much older May Fair. Another notable event includes the one in the Brentham Garden Suburb, England which hosts it annually. It has the second oldest unbroken tradition although the May Queen of All London Festival at Hayes Common in Bromley is a close contender. A May Day festival is held on the village green at Aldborough, North Yorkshire on a site that dates back to Roman times and the settlement of Isurium Brigantum. A May queen is selected from a group of 40 upward girls by the young dancers. She returns the next year to crown the new May Queen and stays in the procession.

     A May Day celebration held annually in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada has the distinction of being the longest running May Day celebration of its kind in the British Commonwealth. This May Day celebration began in 1870 and is one hundred and forty years of age.

 

 

 

 

     2.6 August Bank Holiday

 

 

     The date of the August bank holiday Monday always falls on the last Monday of August. Although the date of the August bank holiday is unique to England, Wales and Northern Ireland, there are always a huge number of August bank holiday events occurring throughout Europe, as the date often coincides with local summer festivals, fairs and festivities, providing plenty of things to do for the August bank holiday weekend.

     From 1965, the date of the August bank holiday was changed to the end of the month. Curiously, there were a few years (e.g., 1968) when this holiday fell in September, but this no longer occurs - presumably reflecting a change in the way of defining the relevant day.

    It seems a real shame not to take full advantage of the rare 3 day weekend afforded by a bank holiday Monday. With many of our holiday home owners happy to take short bookings, if one cannot take the full week off, there are some fantastic August bank holiday short breaks to be discovered. If one is thinking of a short bank holiday weekend of family fun, there are some excellent choices within the UK, cutting out travelling time, and giving much more time with which to enjoy one’s August bank holiday days out to the full.

     On Bank Holiday the towns' folk usually flock into the country and to the coast. If the weather is fine many families take a picnic-lunch or tea with them and enjoy their meal in the open. Seaside towns near London, such as Southend, are invaded by thousands of trippers who come in cars and coaches, trains, motor cycles and bicycles. Great amusement parks like Southend Kursaal do a roaring trade with their scenic railways, shooting galleries, water-shoots, Crazy Houses, Hunted Houses and so on.Trippers will wear comic paper hats with slogans such as «Kiss Me Quick» and they will eat and drink the weirdest mixture of stuff you can imagine, seafood like cockles, mussels, whelks, shrimps and fried fish and chips, candy floss, beer, tea, soft drinks, everything you can imagine.

     Bank Holiday is also on occasion for big sports meetings at places like the White City Stadium, mainly all kinds of athletics. There are also horse race meetings all over the country, and most traditional of all, there are large fairs, with swings, roundabouts, coconut shies, a Punch and Judy show, hoopla stalls and every kind of side-show including, in recent years, bingo. These fairs are pitched on open spaces of common land, and the most famous of them is the huge one on Hampstead Heath near London. It is at Hampstead Heath you will see the Pearly Kings, those Cockney costers (street traders), who wear suits or frocks with thousands of tiny pearl buttons stitched all over them, also over their caps and hats, in case of their Queens. They hold horse and cart parades in which prizes are given for the smartest turn out. Horses and carts are gaily decorated. Many Londoners will visit Whipsnade Zoo. There is also much boating activity on the Thames, regattas at Henley and on other rivers and the English climate being what it is, it invariably rains.

 

 

 

 

     2.7 Halloween

 

 

     The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New Year.

     Halloween is one of the oldest holidays with origins going back thousands of years. The holiday we know as Halloween has had many influences from many cultures over the centuries.

     Hundreds of years ago in what is now Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts. The Celts worshipped nature and had many gods, with the sun god as their favorite. It was "he" who commanded their work and their rest times, and who made the earth beautiful and the crops grow. The Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1st. It was celebrated every year with a festival and marked the end of the "season of the sun" and the beginning of "the season of darkness and cold."

     On October 31st after the crops were all harvested and stored for the long winter the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids, the Celtic priests, would meet in the hilltop in the dark oak forest (oak trees were considered sacred). The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals. As they danced around the the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin.

     When the morning arrived the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits.

     The November 1st festival was called Samhain (pronounced "sow-en"). The festival would last for 3 days. Many people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of their animals. This festival would become the first Halloween.

During the first century the Romans invaded Britain. They brought with them many of their festivals and customs. One of these was the festival know as Pomona Day, named for their goddess of fruits and gardens. It was also celebrated around the 1st of November. After hundreds of years of Roman rule the customs of the Celtic's Samhain festival and the Roman Pomona Day mixed becoming 1 major fall holiday.

The next influence came with the spread of the new Christian religion throughout Europe and Britain. In the year 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church would make November 1st a church holiday to honor all the saints. This day was called All Saint's Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Years later the Church would make November 2nd a holy day. It was called All Souls Day and was to honor the dead. It was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as saints, angels and devils.

     But the spread of Christianity did not make people forget their early customs. On the eve of All Hallows, Oct. 31, people continued to celebrate the festivals of Samhain and Pomona Day. Over the years the customs from all these holidays mixed. October 31st became known as All Hallow Even, eventually All Hallow's Eve, Hallowe'en, and then - Halloween.

     In Great Britain everyone wants to welcome the friendly spirits so special soul-cakes for them. When children in costumes called upon their neighbors' homes on Hallowe'en they would be given soul-cakes too!

    In some parts of Britain Hallowe'en in the past was known as Mischief Night. It was a night for mischief making. People would take the doors off their hinges on this night. The doors were also often thrown into ponds, or taken a long way away.

    Children were told not to sit in the circles of yellow and white flowers were fairies have danced as they may be stolen by the fairies. It was also bad to sit under the hawthorn tree because the fairies loved to dance on them and if they saw them their tempers would be prickled. Children make "punkies " out of large beets. They cut out a design of their choice into the beet. Then they carry them through the streets and sing the Punkie Night Song. They knock on doors and ask for money.

     The black cat was considered to be good luck were as a white cat was considered to be bad luck.

     The Halloween we celebrate today includes all of these influences, Pomona Day's apples, nuts, and harvest, the Festival of Samhain's black cats, magic, evil spirits and death, and the ghosts, skeletons and skulls from All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day.

 

 

 

 

     2.8 Guy Fawkes Night

 

 

     November 5 is celebrated in Britain to commemorate the failure of Guy Fawkes and other terrorist conspirators to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. Public firework displays are organized with effigies of Fawkes burned on bonfires, and smaller parties take place in back gardens throughout the land. The 5th of November is also called 'Firework Night,' 'Bonfire Night,' or 'Guy Fawkes Day.' In the days leading up to it, children traditionally take their home-made effigies, or ‘Guys,’ out into the streets and ask passers-by for ‘a penny for the Guy,’ using the money to buy fireworks.

     The conspiracy to blow up the Houses of Parliament on November 5, 1605, is known as the 'Gunpowder Plot,' and was discovered the night before the explosion was to occur. The origins of the plot remain unclear and the truth will probably never be known. Generations of historians accepted it was an attempt to re-establish the Catholic religion. In more recent times, others have suspected that the plot was the work of a group of agents-provocateurs, anxious to discredit the Jesuits and reinforce the ascendancy of the Protestant religion.